First electronically signed mortgage hailed

The mortgage, or ‘e-charge’, from Coventry building society, was signed electronically by the borrower and registered on March 24.

The Land Registry says that the landmark occasion was an important step in its programme of introducing new electronic services and helped to make property transactions easier for all.

Land Registry director of information systems John Wright says:“This huge achievement is the culmination of two years’ work by Land Registry staff. The benefits of using e-charges include speeding up the process of creating and submitting applications to register charges and reducing the volume of paper generated in each transaction.”

Evaluate Technologies says this is a promising sign that the mortgage industry is finally looking to catch up the rest of financial services in terms of technological innovation.

Evaluate Technologies national accounts director Julie Speed says: “This is one small step for financial services but one giant leap for the mortgage sector. This further endorses the need for all areas of the market to look at technological advances and reinforces the fact that the mortgage sector is increasingly looking to online solutions as the way forward.

“We are receiving great encouragement that online represents the future and will continue in our quest to rid the sector of low value activities and help brokers write business with increased speed and efficiency.”

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